Human Race

Biodata

Power Progression

These milestones describe the development of human cultivation and its practitioners, not a single realm shared by the entire population.

Background and History

Spiritual Energy Revival

When spiritual energy revived, Demon Beasts spread across the world and threatened humanity’s survival. Early awakened humans fought back, demonstrated that demons could be killed and used as cultivation resources, and helped scattered survivors gather together. Their migration took an entire year and cost many awakened lives 7 223.

The first generation built the Four Great Passes through enormous sacrifice. As these defenses took shape, the opposing territories became known as the Human Domain and Demon Domain. The demons developed their own factions and command structure, with Skyvault Ravine occupying a position comparable to Ink Pavilion 70 224.

The First Three Generations

After Yu Yongyan’s death, the surviving first-generation ancestors concealed themselves among ordinary people. When the demons launched another all-out assault, three middle-aged men invaded the Demon Domain and forced a treaty: only the forces of two mountains could attack each year, and Ninth Awakening combatants were forbidden from leaving the mountains. The threat of mutual destruction secured nearly twenty years for reconstruction and education 224.

Li Mocheng’s later stand bought another five years. Cities prospered, and Ink Pavilion expanded its administration with the Dark Pavilion, Reserve Corps, Bounty Hall, and Education Department. Greater internal stability also brought new crimes and social problems 224.

The Fourth Generation’s Hidden Mission

Ji Hong’s apparent betrayal was built on the sacrifices of the Fourth Generation’s heavenly prides. Publicly, he denounced humanity, killed members of the Guard Bureau and Dark Pavilion, and escaped into the Demon Domain. Privately, his peers accepted death to make his defection convincing, urging him to survive and carry their convictions forward. He became the foremost name on the Human Race’s Must-Kill List 1243.

Yu Mo later worked to draw Old White Ape’s attention away from Skyvault Ravine so Ji Hong could complete the Fourth Generation’s concealed objective. He accepted that his own reputation might be sacrificed to restore Ji Hong’s name 1252.

Organization and Defenses

Human Institutions

The Four Great Passes

• Demon-Suppressing Pass, Dawn Pass, Dome Pass, and Ghost Gate form the principal barrier against Demon Clan invasion. Human experts are stationed along the defenses to intercept infiltrators 7.
• Dawn Pass’s breach demonstrated the consequences of a failed border defense: tens of thousands of beasts entered human territory, and escaped demons fought city defenders for several days 831.
• Strategic deterrence relies partly on threatening unacceptable losses. Human leaders repeatedly use the prospect of mutual destruction to secure treaties, restrain stronger enemies, or protect their forces 148 224 275 1291.

Cultivation and Capabilities

Awakening System

• Longevity: Every awakening improves bodily capabilities. By Dawn Era Year 149, no Sixth Awakening human had died of old age, leaving their natural maximum lifespan unknown 70.
• Physical limitations: Humans generally possess weaker bodies than demons. Even a Ninth Awakening practitioner can remain physically vulnerable without ancient cultivation training 987 1386.
• Temperament and tactics: Human instruction emphasizes vigilance, composure, and resolve rather than talent alone. Demon commanders also recognize humanity’s skill at exploiting terrain, traps, and environmental conditions 14 1380.

Ancient Cultivation Techniques

• Train both the body and mental power, rather than relying solely on Awakening Objects and their skills 966.
• Offer alternative growth paths to capable people with limited awakening talent, while potentially allowing support and medical practitioners to fight directly 966.
• Yu Mo regarded Yu Sheng’s recovery of these techniques as a contribution that gave humanity a genuine chance to confront the Demon Domain on more equal terms 1035.
• They do not make the modern human system identical to the Heavenly Race’s system; that distinction remains an obstacle when seeking the Tenth Awakening 1621.

Cultivation Resources and Denial Tactics

• Demon Crystals, Demon Cores, demon plants, and other demonic materials are valuable human cultivation and trade resources 7 1108.
• Human blood essence is powerful nourishment for Demon Beasts, making human losses a potential source of enemy growth 736.
• Some Seventh Awakening humans fuse their vital blood and energy before deployment so their bodies turn to ash when their energy dissipates, denying the demons nourishment 275.

Society and Culture

Passing on the Torch

Humanity’s central protective ideal is that those saved by earlier generations should remember them and eventually protect others in turn. At Second High School’s graduation ceremony, this lesson was delivered before photographs of fifty-six dead students 70.

The ideal is also institutionalized at Ink Academy. Torch Inheritance Road preserves the history of humanity’s sacrifices, while the annual entrance ceremony has bloodstained soldiers greet incoming students with hopes that the next generation will finish what they could not 108 111.

• Heroism is not restricted to selfless motives. An Ink Pavilion driver argues that someone who saves people for money can still be a hero; selfishness alone does not exclude a person from humanity’s cause 21.
• Protection does not justify unlimited coercion. Yu Mo acknowledges that humanity already owes Yu Sheng too much to demand further service through moral pressure 1035.
• Unity is not presented as moral perfection. Yu Mo attributes much of humanity’s solidarity to external danger, while Zhong Yushu warns that removing the Demon Clan would not automatically end human conflict 1122 1442.

Education, Technology, and Public Support

• Human Race Grand Exam: A widely followed assessment. The Awakening Object Illusion Realm System moved from a successful pilot to full implementation 403.
• Expanded wartime training: Ink Academy received 340,000 applications for its free, high-risk program. Other universities lowered talent requirements and introduced dangerous special training classes, supported by public and business donations 682.
• Established language and writing: Demon factions adopted human writing rather than developing an entirely separate system 457.
• Cultural influence: Old White Ape encouraged demons to study human films, television, and institutional practices; he explicitly described several of his reforms as things humans had already done for years 1141.
• Private wartime contributions: Gold Ingot Group donated half its shares, while the Black Market later moved supplies toward the Four Great Passes and donated half its cargo 1006 1618.

Relations with Other Races

• Demon Clan — Humanity’s principal wartime enemy, but not an entirely unified opponent. Yu Mo believed internal selfishness among demon leaders had repeatedly prevented humanity’s destruction 1440.
• Demon Domain trade — Old White Ape proposed using a neutral Black Market to exchange demonic cultivation materials for human goods. The proposal deliberately placed the market outside exclusive human allegiance 1108.
• Heavenly Race — An ancient civilization associated with the “Ancient Human Race.” Its surviving legacies do not make it interchangeable with modern humanity: Yu Sheng is identified as Heavenly Race rather than biologically human 942 1369 1658.
• Feather Race — Another earlier civilization that fought the Beast Race. Its surviving representative described structural differences from modern humans, and its legacy was passed to Shi Guang 1573 1575.
• Nonhuman residents — Yu Sheng cites Big White’s good life among humans to reject Old White Ape’s claim that modern humanity necessarily shares the exclusionary attitudes of ancient races 1647.

Old White Ape offers contradictory assessments of humanity: he envies its peaceful everyday life and admires its ability to find strength in despair, yet also calls humans selfish and seeks to destroy them. These are his judgments, not a settled description of every human 1098 1124 1652 1653.

Major Conflicts

Notable Quotes

“And once you become strong, stand in front of those who need your protection just as they did.”
— Second High School’s principal 70

“They seem... always able to find new strength in despair.”
— Old White Ape 1098

“Whether it's the Heavenly Race or the Feather Race, they're history now.”
“The world today belongs to the Human Race!”
— Mu Yu 1576